Football helmet



Nov; 8, 1 927. 1,648,850

A. E. KENNEDY FOOTBALL HELMET Filed April 9/5327 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR W flzz zmmned 9% ATTORNEYS WWW Nov. 8, 1927. L

A. E. KENNEDY FOOTBALL HELMET Filed April 9. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Nov. 8, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALLEN E. KENNEDY, OF' GLOVERSVILLE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORTO KEN-WEL SPORT- ING GOODS COMPANY, INC., OF GLOVERSVILLE, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

FOOTBALL HELMET.

Application filed April 9, 1927. Serial No. 182,480.

This invention relates to improvements in football helmets, and it consists of the constructions, combinations and arrangements herein described and claimed.

One of the important objects of the invention is to construct the ear guards or protectors in such a manner as to transfer the force of the blow to the skull of the wearer, the arrangement providing a recess or pocket by which the ear of the wearer is received in a partially folded over position, such recess being sufliciently deep to fully contain the ear and to make it impossible for any part of a blow to reach the ear, thus preventing what is commonly known cauliflower ears.

Another object of the invention resides in the novel formation of the padding by use of which the foregoing recess or pocket is built up.

Other objects and advantages appear in the following specificatiomreference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a football helmet clearly illustrating the improve ment in the ear guards,

Fig. 2 is a detail side elevation particularly intended to illustrate how the ear of the wearer is partially folded over in order to enter the protecting hollow or recess,

Fig. 3 is a d'etail'horizontal section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2, again showing the ear in position, and also illustrating the padding construction of the ear guards,

Fig. 4: is a vertical section taken substantiallyon the line 4-4 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is a detailperspective view of one of the leather fly pieces, V

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view of the first or base pad,

Fig. 7 is a detail perspective view of the intermediate pad,

Fig. Sis a detail perspective View of the innermost or face pad.

Football helmets in general are always well padded and reinforced to withstand the rough usage to which they are subjected, and the padding extends down into what is knownas the ear and side face guards. Usually these guards contain a single lining of heavy felt, and rest very closely to the sides of the face and ears with the ears pressed against the skull so that any'blow imparted to the ear guard is transmitted to the skull and ear as well, causing a crushing ofthe felt liningso designed as to provide recesses in which the ears fit, but here, as in the first instance, the ears come next to the outer lining and receive some of the shock of a blow with the same result as before. The cars can.

be damaged very severely where the ears lie flat against the guards.

It is an important consideration to prevent the ear from assuming its normal flat position against the side of the ear guard of the improved helmet, and a construction is provided which makes necessary the slight folding over of theear (Figs. 2 and 8), so that it fits the recess or pocket quite snugly and comfortably and causes the adjacent padding to rest against the adjacent skull surface of the wearer at the sides of the ear base sothat any blow struck upon the ear guard is transmitted to and absorbed by the skull and not by the ear. The recess or pocket is made sufficiently deep by virtue of the arrangement of the felt padding so as to conveniently contain the entire car in the position named, Without any discomfort whatever to the wearer. 1

Reference is had to thedrawings; The pocket is approximated in width to that of the base of the average ear at its point of junction with the head so that the ear fits snugly in the pocket, the end of the ear being slightly folded over to enter the pocket recess which, as stated, is at least deep enough to contain the entire ear without the ear receiving the force of blows. By providing anear pocket or recess approximating in width that ofthe base of the car at its junction with the head or skull, (and therefore, necessitating the folding over of the end of the ear in seating in the pocket), the skull engaging padding at the edges of the pocket is enabled to transmit the force of blows received by'the ear guard to the strong bone structure at the base of the ear which is more suited to receive the brunt of a blow. The helmet, generally indicated at 1 includes a pair of side pieces 2 which are stitched together along the line 3 at the back, and have depending portions 4 hereinafter known as the ear guards. In forming the side pieces 2 and ear guards 4, the

' composed of relatively line thread, and

latter are provided with quite a pronounced concavity as indicated at 5 in Figs. 3 and 5. An insert 6 (Fig. 5) of fiber or other suitable material is cemented in position on the inside of the concavity for the purpose of adding reinforcement to the ear guards, both the ear guard and reinforcing fiber having a hole 7 for the obviously necessary purpose of permitting the wearer to hear. I

Assembled in order against the inside of the side piece 2 (Figs; 5, 6, 7 and 8), are the first base pad 8, and intermediate pad 9 and the innermost or face pad 10. The pads 9 and 10 are U-shaped, but the legs of the pad 10 are longer than those of the pad 9 so that the extremities of the pad 9 may be overreached by the extremities of the pad 10 and that the extremities of the pad 10 may come even with the upper and long edge 11 of the base pad 8 when the parts are assembled, as clearly shown in l. 7 r

These parts are initially assembled by a line of stitching 12. This line of stitching s is made on a gracefully rounded U-shape (Fig. 4), causing the regions of the pads 9 and 10 adjacent to the centralelongated openings 13 and 14: to form a soft and inwardly extending mound, as indicated at 15 in the case of the innermost padlO. This mound comes next to the skull of the wearer adjacent to the base of the ear (Fig. 3) and provides a thick protecting body at a place where a heavy blow is likely to do the most damage. It is to be observedhere that the openings 13 and 14 are relatively long and quite narrow, in fact, considerably narrower than the ordinary human ear, so that, as previously stated, it becomes necessary for the wearer to slightly turn the'edge of the ear outwardly in the direction of the openings in order that the recess or pocket formed by such openings may receive and contain the ear.

After stitching the pads 8, 9 and 10 to gether, as stated, the pad 8 is applied to the side piece 2 over the fiber reinforcement 6 where it is cemented in position and ultimately stitched with heavy thread at 16, and around the hole 7 as at 17 The pad 8 has a hole 18 which registers with the hole 7 in the side piece 2, and these registering holes come approximately in line with the opening in the ear. The openings 13 and 1a in the pads 9 and 10 extend lower than said holes thus giving the recess or pocket indicated at-19 in Figs. 1 and f suflicient depth to contain the lobe of the ear. The extremities of the legs of the pad 9 are slightly beveled as at 19 (Fig. 7 whereas the extremities of the pad 10 have relatively long beveled or feathered edges as at 20. This arrangement provides for a gradual reduction in thickness or tapering of the padding in the upward direction, the idea being to diminish the thickness of the padding in the direction above the ear, but provide thickest padding in the immediate vicinity of the ear so that the recess or pocket will have ample depth to comfortably contain the ear Without danger of any blow reaching it.

In addition to the foregoing light stitching 12 the face pad lO'is stitched against the pad 8 as at 21 (Fig. 4-). The reader is doubtless acquainted with that elastic quality of felt (of which the pads are composed), which causes the felt to bulge out or thicken at places where it is free of compression. This characteristic has already been described in connect-ion with the inwardly extending mound 15 which is the result of the line of stitching 12 and the freedom of the edges of the pads 9 and 10 around the openings 13 and 1 1. The same characteristic is to be observed between the lines 12 and 21 of stitching for the region designated 22 (Figs. 1 and l) is observed to have a slight inward curvature which extends down to and around the place indicated at 23, all making for a soft and resilient yet steady padding against the face of the wearer, providing the maximum of comfort and of pro tection.

A brief rsum will serve as a conclusion for the foregoing description. The recess or pockets formed by the openings 13 and 14 in the pads 9and 10 is long and relatively narrow, in fact, so narrow that there would not be room for an ear of the wearer if an attempt were made to place the ear in its normal position. In donning the helmet, the wearer must turn the edge of the ear slightly outwardly (Fig. 3) so that the back of the ear rests against one wall of the pocket. But all'of the ear is retained by the pocket, and rests therein quite comfortably.

The pads 9 and 10 are suflioientl" thick to make the Pocket, deep enough to fu ly contain the ear, the latter being so Surrounded (Fig. 3) that any blow imparted to the ear guard will betransmitted to the skull of the wearer around the base of the ear and not to the ear itself. The hearing of the wearer is not impaired at all, the openings 7 and 18 coming right in line with the opening to the ear.

)Vhile the construction and arrangement of, the improved football helmet is that of a, generally preferred form, obviously modi fications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims.

, I claim 1. A helmet having ear guards, and a padding applied inside of the ear guards formed to outline relatively long and narrow recesseshaving parallel side walls spaced to approximate the width of the base of an car at its junction with the skull, the thickness of the padding varying so that the recess is deepest in the region of the lobes and openings of the ears but tapers upwardly to the head of the wearer at points approximately at the top of the ears.

2. A helmet having ear guards, a base pad applied next to the guards on the inside, and a plurality of succeeding pads of substantial U-shape having legs of varying lengths and being beveled on one of the face sides of the legs to produce a diminution of thickness in the padding in the region of the top of the ear but producing the thickest padding in the region of the lobe and openin of the ear, the openings of said U-shaped pads approximating in Width that of the maximum base of the ear at its unction With the skull.

3. An ear guard for football helmets comprising an internally padded guard piece having an ear pocket therein formed by the padding with the padding outlining the pocket shaped to engage the skull at the base of the ear, anddefining a pocket of a Width approximating that of the base of the ear at its junction With the skull.

4. An ear guard for football helmets comprising an internally padded guard piece having an ear pocket therein on its inner face With the padding surrounding and forming the pocket ridged to engage the skull at the base of the ear, said pocket being of a Width approximating that of the base of the ear at its junction With the skull.

5. An ear guard for football helmets comprising a'guard piece faced internally With laminated padding shaped to outline an ear pocket of a Width approximating that of the base of an ear at its junction with the skull, and with the laminae of padding joined together and formed to provide a ridge-forming bulge at the inside face of the padding providing a bearing of padding for the skull at the base of the ear.

6. An ear guard for football helmets comprising a guard piece faced internally With overlaid padding layers including a plurality of layers shaped to outline an ear pocket of a Width approximating that of the base of the ear at its junction With the skull, said plurality of layers being of compressible fabric joined together by stitching causing the inner pocket edging portion of padding to bulge into a ridge adapted to bear against the skull at the base of the ear.

ALLEN E. KENNEDY. 

